1940s Vega Profundo
The dreadnought is the most common acoustic body type
produced today, but when it was first created, it represented the peak of guitar
design in a startlingly large body. Martin produced the first dreadnought
guitars in 1931 as 12-fret Hawaiian-style instruments, but the design really hit
its stride in 1934 with the introduction of 14-fret Spanish models. Other
manufacturers were quick to catch on, and by the end of the decade, Gibson,
Epiphone and Regal were all building guitars that approximated Martin’s design.
Vega joined the club as well, introducing its Profundo model by 1939.
Vega had been building guitars for over half a century at
that point, even longer than they had been making the banjos for which they were
better known. Early Vega guitars were mostly typical of the concert and
auditorium-sized instruments that dominated the guitar world, though the company
did experiment with arched bodies and f-holes in the days before modern archtops
took off. The Profundo represented a significant step forward; it was the
largest flat-top guitar in the Vega catalog, and its art deco styling finally
caught up with the company’s archtop line. If it wasn’t revolutionary, the
Profundo at least offered some competition to Martin and Gibson.
In fact, the Profundo offered
something notably different to those brands, but it wasn’t obvious from the
outside. The top was ladder braced, a tried and true design that Vega had used
for decades and never actually abandoned until the company was purchased by
Martin in 1970. Nowadays, ladder bracing is often associated with cheap pre-War
guitars; the bracing itself isn’t a cut-corner construction method, but it’s
strongly associated with budget-level manufacturers that saw no incentive to
change. As Gibson and Martin gradually made X-bracing the standard, their sound
became associated with more “refined” instruments. As the Profundo (and other
examples) amply demonstrate, ladder bracing does not automatically create a
sub-par sound. It does, however, create a noticeably
different sound to X-bracing, which
is why the Profundo has an accentuated bassy thump and somewhat limited sustain
compared to the Gibson and Martin equivalents. Its booming attack makes it an
excellent for jazz comping or bluegrass picking, though fingerpickers may find
more bass than they’re accustomed to.
The first Profundos were built with rosewood backs and
sides, as noted in the 1939 catalog.
Few were built this way, as Vega switched to mahogany within a short time. This
guitar’s mahogany back, diamond inlays and striped headstock veneer mark it as
an early 1940s instrument; by the end of that decade, Vega switched to
rectangular fret markers and a more mundane headstock. The Profundo was built at
least until the mid 1950s, though the early examples are the most prized either
for their rosewood backs or striking headstock veneers. The quality of
construction was uniformly high, and the Profundo shared a number of features
with Vega’s acoustic archtops such as a two-piece metal neck reinforcement and a
floating pickguard. This last feature was rather unusual on a flat-top guitar,
and the thinking was that it would allow the top to vibrate more freely. In
practice, many of the pickguards warped over the years and were often removed
and lost. Many Profundos now sport non-original, glued-on pickguards as a
result.
This guitar is all original except for the tuner buttons
(the originals crumbled, as often happens with old plastic). The neck has been
reset, but otherwise there has been no damage or repairs.
